HEALTH

Program Focus

IDRF health programs provide access to essential, high-quality health services and trained healthcare workers to families who do not have basic medical assistance because of their inaccessible location or indigent circumstances (or both).

Health Promotion & Education

IDRF provides health-specific education, training, and awareness-raising through community gatherings, workshops, counseling, and classes in schools. Topics include nutrition, maternal and child health, sexual and reproductive health, common preventable diseases, and more. This information has a big impact on communities who often lack information about simple steps to improve their health.

Zambia

With support from the Government of Canada, IDRF provided nutrition workshops, ran community drama performances with health education messages, and offered one-on-one counseling services, all with the aim of preventing HIV transmission.

Pakistan

IDRF is raising awareness about breast cancer and the importance of early detection through screening through over 100 awareness sessions in 17 different cities. To date we have directly reached over 21,000 women through these screening promotion sessions.

Maternal and Newborn Child Health (MNCH)

IDRF provides healthcare worker and community outreach volunteer training in MNCH, along with pre- and post-natal healthcare services, midwife training, nutrition workshops for new mothers, breastfeeding support, and community outreach services for pregnant women and new mothers, as well as for the partners and families who support them.

Zambia

IDRF trained healthcare workers and community outreach volunteers in prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, as well as training women and providing resources such as food staples to improve nutrition, supportive breastfeeding, and reproductive health.

India

IDRF is providing outreach services including safe delivery support to expectant mothers and their families in rural communities. To date we have reached 1,000 community members.

Guyana

In developing countries, kidney disease often progresses to renal failure because of late diagnosis and lack of ability to pay for treatment. IDRF is providing subsidized dialysis services to patients who cannot afford to pay for care.

Why support IDRF Health programs?

Many people in developing countries do not have access to basic primary care. Many suffer and die from preventable diseases and illness. When people suffer from poor health, malnutrition, and diseases, they are often not able to work, and it affects their quality of life.

One significant barrier to wellbeing is stigma. Some topics, such as mental health and sexual and reproductive health, are particularly difficult to discuss, resulting in people not getting the care that they need. IDRF supports effective and culturally sensitive health promotion to reduce stigma, increase service access, and help people make informed decisions.

Nearly 800 women die every day due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth. High-income countries have an average of almost 90 nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people while some low-income countries have fewer than 2 per 10,000 people. Having skilled birth attendants is an important factor for achieving maternal and child health, and in many cases will save lives.